Survival Kids review: "A largely unambitious but extremely accessible My First Survival Game for Switch 2"

Survival Kids is a survival game for people who don't like survival games, and I absolutely mean that as a compliment. It is, as you may have guessed from the name and the art style, primarily aimed at players on the younger end of the gaming spectrum and their families. It's equally clear that this is a game designed with co-op play in mind. That said, I'm a man in his 40s who mostly played Survival Kids solo, and I had a pleasant – if not exactly adrenaline-pumping – time with it.

Levels are presented as a series of islands, which you keep rather clumsily crashing your raft into. The fundamental objective on each is to reach the top of the island, where your ruined raft is consistently waiting for you to gather the required parts and materials to repair it. Along the way you'll have climbing nets to build, bridges to construct, food to cook, tools to make and use, and shenanigans to engage in.

Isle be there

The survival aspect very much leans on construction rather than death. The Kids, like the Highlander, are immortal. Unlike the Highlander, there can be more than one, with two player split-screen, three player Game Share, or four players online (private code-based lobbies only). Two or more players working together can carry heavy objects more quickly, harvest materials faster, and there are occasional opportunities to engage in two tasks at once on different parts of the island. A solo player can easily play the entire game from start to finish, but some tasks will take a little longer.

The recipe for anything you need to build hovers over the place it'll appear, showing how many planks, vines, etc are still required. This makes it easy to identify and bring the materials over, but it doesn't mean that things are patronizingly simple. It's only a few islands in that you'll start to find transporting those materials isn't always straightforward; you can't climb while carrying anything for example, and a few construction spots you can't reach at all. You're encouraged to get creative. Sometimes you can hurl the ingredients in from a slight distance, other times you'll find that fishing rod you made is useful for hooking more than just fish…

There's no hunger meter, but you'll still need to cook and eat food to build up your stamina, the maximum for which is slowly reduced over time. This determines how long you can keep your grip on a climbing net, how long you can carry something before slowing down (though stamina recharges with pleasing speed), and whether or not you can unearth something buried in the ground. I'm fine with this. It's an infinitely preferable system to a traditional one that sees you dying of starvation because you went five minutes without a sandwich.

Star power

As you progress, action platformer elements are gently introduced. There are simple puzzles, "ancient turrets" that spit mysterious purple goo to be avoided, and it's not too long before an umbrella that allows you to glide short distances and ride updrafts makes an appearance. It all melts together well, and prevents things from becoming repetitive. The turrets produce a few sections that make me grit my teeth and/or say very naughty words, but these parts are very much the exception rather than the rule.

I played the penultimate island solo, and found some of the backtracking and dragging of objects to be a bit of a slog. I also wasn't particularly happy to find that the final island requires a minimum number of stars to unlock, and I was a little short. You need 25 of the 48 (up until that point) available.

That meant I only needed to revisit a few islands, but I kind of resented not being given any warning beforehand. Each island can award up to six stars. There are a maximum of three based on completion time, and another three for each of the hidden 'treasure stones' you find and drag back to camp. Getting all six in one run is incredibly unlikely, both in solo and co-op. I give this gift to you: be aware those stars aren't just there to encourage replays.

Still, that final island? It was worth it. Without spoiling too much, I was pleasantly surprised at the ambition on display, ambition that – to be honest – the rest of the game could do with a taste of. It also serves as a reminder of the pros and cons of solo and co-op play.

One of my favorite things about playing alone is that I can pretend the unnervingly positive narrator with a sharp edge of optimism in his voice is an invention of my character's overly stressed mind, an indication that they're close to breaking point after finding themselves marooned on an island with sentient turrets. Another positive is that I can hoard all the food I cook for myself, making keeping stamina high pretty easy. Conversely, when playing with one or more other people, resource harvesting can be super fast, but splitting the food to keep everybody's stamina up can be a new challenge.

You're not patronized with instant solutions and unrelenting hand-holding, but there's plenty of guidance, such as an on-screen arrow pointing to objectives (and the occasional hint delivered via a bad pun). The experience is usually pretty smooth as a result, but that also means challenge is kept to a minimum. It's an experience with very few highs, but also almost no lows, and as such is perfect for playing with a young relative – or, if you prefer, to play as a relaxing low-stakes adventure by yourself.

Looking for a deeper experience? Check out our best survival games list!